VOLuntarilyConservative

I meant to lead off with this post today after accidentally seeing a replay of Larry King in the wee hours, but life got in the way. In any case, better late than never. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice - already giving a better showing than Mr. Powell did during his four-year reign - told King last night that the individual right to bear arms, as protected by the Second Amendment, is as important than the rights to free speech and religion. I like that line of thought, although I would say that it is more important because the other two are worthless if a tyrannical government or organized criminal factions can take away your free speech rights or right to free exercise of religion because the only protection that was ever afforded them was in the form of a document and not a Mossberg Model 500 pump. The framers of the Tennessee Constitution were certainly so inclined.

I have only been able to find a serious mainstream media story here and here, but the AP has picked up the story, so it should be widely read in a few hours. It's disappointing that neither story making the rounds mentions that it is the official position of the Department of Justice that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to bear arms or that the prevailing trend is towards that view, instead stating that people "disagree over whether the amendment guarantees individual gun ownership."

MORE: Instapundit has more on this. He again calls for the right to arms as a recognized international human right. I call for the end of international law and the UN. I think I might have better odds of getting what I want than Professor Reynolds does.